


Haunted...

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 00:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20684666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: The empty house has a reputation for being haunted.





	Haunted...

Haunted...

by Bluewolf

The old Braithwaite Mansion had been derelict for many years. It had been suggested several times that it should be demolished, but its owner was still alive - alive, though needing permanent care after the accident that killed his parents and siblings when he was twenty-three left him - the only survivor - brain damaged and with the mentality of a two-year-old. The family fortune, while massively reduced through paying his medical bills and care for the last forty-odd years, would certainly last for what was left of his life - the doctors estimated that he would probably live for at least another five years, possibly more, but there would still be several tens of thousands of dollars left at that point.

But nothing could be done about demolishing the house without his signature, and he was incapable of signing his name - of even understanding why he should make some sort of mark on the paper authorizing the demolition of the derelict house. His heir, Don Braithwaite, was a second cousin, who had indicated that he would be happy to get rid of what he considered a useless property - he certainly didn't need it - but while his cousin was alive there was little he could do about demolishing it, although he had sold the furniture. There was no point in letting it rot.

He - and his father before him - had tried several times to sell the building, at a fraction of its original cost - he could have done that on the grounds of making sure that there was enough money to keep his brain-damaged cousin in the care facility where he had resided for the forty years since the accident; but everyone who had looked at the building had left saying that weird noises in it gave them the creeps.

Word about that got around... and soon the old Mansion found itself with a reputation for being haunted.

***

Boys being boys, it didn't take long before the local youngsters began daring each other to spend time inside the building; a broken window at the rear gave them a way to enter it. Even some of the bolder girls took part in their game of 'chicken'.

And the one thing they all said when they climbed back out - "Lord, those weird noises!"

And yet... who haunted the building? There were no local stories about murders or mysterious deaths in or near the place. From the day it was built it had been the most respectable of houses. The Braithwaite family had no history of being anything but law-abiding and generous; even the accident that had killed all of the immediate family except Frank had been totally the fault of the other driver involved.

And then two brothers, new to the area, were dared to go into the house - and found a body lying on the floor.

They stared at it for a moment, then turned and ran for the broken window that had given them access. They jostled each other in their haste to get out, then the older one realized that letting his brother out first would mean them both getting out faster.

Their new acquaintances (they hadn't been in the area long enough to call anyone 'friend') watched, surprised, as the two tumbled out, then started a chant of "Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!" because they had spent no time at all inside.

"Tony! You've got a phone, right?" the older boy interrupted.

"Yes."

"Call the police. There's a body in there!"

***

Two Patrol cars arrived within seconds of each other. The officers jumped out and hurried to the shaken boys. "Officer Denton," one of them introduced himself. "Can I have your names?"

"I'm Ross Hardy," the older brother said. "This is my brother Dean. We were the ones who went into the house. The others were all outside."

"And there's a body in there?" Denton knew all about the game of 'chicken' the boys played - his son still had the odd nightmare featuring the weird noises he had heard in the house several years earlier.

"Yes. We... we went in through the broken window, and... as soon as we saw the body we ran, but I think it was someone too big to have got in the window."

Sam Denton and his partner, Lenny Deitcher, looked at each other. Denton motioned with his head, and Deitcher headed off towards the front of the building, followed by Trent Potter from the second car. Joe West joined Denton as he headed for the back door.

It was the back door that opened - not totally to the cops' surprise, because it was, obviously, the rear of the building that was hidden from the road. Denton glanced over at the very shaken group of boys. "Stay where you are," he said. "We'll need a little more of a statement from you."

"Yes, sir." Tony Blackman was the acknowledged leader of the group. Newcomer Ross Hardy had been getting all the attention because of finding the body; Tony seized the chance to show that_ he_ was the one who 'ruled the roost' so to speak.

It only took a minute for Denton and West to find the room accessed by the broken window. Whoever had initially broken it, it had been broken for years; and relatively small though the opening was, over those years debris, mostly in the form of dead leaves, had blown in.

"What... what the hell is that noise?" West, who had moved to Cascade from Tacoma barely a year earlier, asked.

"Good question," Denton said as he swung his flashlight around. "That's what's given the house the reputation for being haunted, what brings the kids here to play 'chicken'. Nobody knows what it is, but it's been commented on for... God, it has to be close on forty years. About as long as the house has been empty." He moved over to the dark shape the flashlight had revealed, lying fairly near the fireplace opposite the broken window.

The corpse was that of a young man. He had clearly been killed where he lay - there was blood on the floor all around him. He had, however, died several hours earlier; the blood had mostly dried.

Denton looked around. "The kids always climb in and out of the window," he said slowly, "and the space is enough for them - but I wonder... that back door is unlocked. How long have adults been able to come in that door, if they wanted to?"

"Pretty big if," West muttered. "That noise... "

Denton gave a half smile. "Whatever it is," he agreed. "Don Braithwaite - the guy who'll eventually inherit it - tried years ago to get it identified, and couldn't. And when he does inherit the house, I'd guess he'll just have it demolished."

"So who does it belong to? Why doesn't the actual owner - ?"

"Years ago, he was involved in an accident that left him permanently brain damaged," Denton said as he continued looking around the room. "He doesn't understand anything."

"So couldn't whoever will inherit the house have him declared incapable of making an informed decision, and just sold the house?"

"I believe Don's father tried to get the house sold on the grounds that the money would go towards making sure there was enough to keep his cousin in the care facility where he's been for at least forty years," Denton said, "but everyone who looked at the house commented on that noise. Nobody was interested in making an offer for it. Ah!"

"Something?"

Denton's check of the room had taken him to a corner; he bent to look closer. "A knife." He glanced round as the door opened again and the other two cops entered.

"There's nothing outside," Deitcher said.

"The vic was stabbed, and I've just found a knife," Denton said. "Go and call for Forensics and a detective from Homicide."

His partner nodded and went back out.

***

Forensics arrived within half an hour, during which time the four Patrol cops questioned the boys, got their addresses and sent them home. And then, ten minutes after Forensics arrived, an elderly blue truck pulled in, parked behind the Patrol cars, and the group inside the house were joined, not by a detective from Homicide, but by Jim Ellison and his civilian ride along, Blair Sandburg.

"Detective Ellison?" Denton said, totally unable to mask the surprise in his voice.

Jim shrugged as Blair greeted the four Patrol cops by name. "Homicide's very busy right now - Captain Findlay asked Captain Banks, as a favor, to send someone, so here I am."

Denton led them into the room where the Forensics staff was checking out everything. Jim joined them, spoke with Serena for a minute, then crossed to the body He knelt beside it, shaking his head as he saw the extent of the injuries the young man had suffered. He was hesitant to assume that one of the injuries had killed the victim; from the amount of blood it was more likely that the man had bled to death. He was just finishing his check of the body when two EMTs came in.

Their quick check was routine; there was no doubting that the man was dead. They lifted him onto a stretcher, put a blanket carefully over him, and carried him out. As they did the noise, which had been a background distraction, intensified for a few moments.

Denton shook his head as he joined Jim and Blair. "Wish I knew what that noise is," he muttered. "Nobody's ever been able to identify it. It's given the place a reputation for being haunted."

"In that case there are a lot of old warehouses down at the docks that are haunted too," Blair said.

"Warehouses?" Denton asked.

"It's rats," Blair said. "Rats, mice, possibly a few other rodents too, living in the wall cavities. Might even be one or two snakes," he added. "You don't get those in the old warehouses, but there will certainly be some here, as surrounded by countryside as it is. There are maybe even some bats in the attic, but they tend to be very quiet; you wouldn't hear them."

"Rats?" Deitcher, who had followed his partner, asked. "Are you sure?"

"I lived for two or three months in one of the deserted dockland warehouses," Blair said. "I was doing a study with a Barbary ape, and it was the only place I could find that would let me keep him. One thing that place had in abundance was rats. Believe me, what you're hearing here is rats scuttling around."

Deitcher chuckled. "Should we tell the boys?" he asked, and Denton knew he was thinking about Sam Junior, who had been really frightened by the noise.

"Now who are we to ruin their game of chicken?" he asked. "But we could let Don Braithwaite know."

Serena joined them. "I think we've got everything," she said. "There's a nice set of prints on the knife. If the killer has a criminal record we should identify him easily enough."

"Good," Jim said.

"I suppose two of us had better stay and guard the place?" Denton asked.

"Yes," she said, "but I'll have a word with Captain Forester and get someone to replace whichever pair stays, as soon as possible. All four of you have had a full and pretty stressful few hours."

Jim nodded his agreement. "You guys don't really get enough credit for some of the work you do," he said.

Serena and her team, as well as Jim and Blair, headed off. The four Patrol cops decided that they might as well all stay, but they settled down together in one car, having moved it to where they could get a reasonable view of the back of the house as well as the front.

***

Serena was right; the fingerprints on the knife identified the killer, a member of one of the local gangs, who was arrested a couple of days later. His victim was a fellow gang member; his reason, a quarrel over a girl.

***

On being told about the rats, Don Braithwaite employed a pest-killing agency, which soon disposed of the rodents; and when Frank Braithwaite died a few months later as the result of a heart attack, Don was able to sell the house for a reasonable amount. And done up by its buyers, the 'haunted' Braithwaite Mansion, no longer haunted after the efforts of the pest-killers, once again became a respectable family home.


End file.
